propitiate

/ˌpɹəˈpɪʃieɪt/

propitiate verb: to conciliate, appease, or make peace with someone, particularly a god or spirit.

Verb

propitiate (third-person singular simple present propitiates, present participle propitiating, simple past and past participle propitiated)

(transitive) To conciliate, appease, or make peace with someone, particularly a god or spirit.
- Let fierce Achilles, dreadful in his rage,
  The god propitiate, and the pest assuage.1720, Alexander Pope, The Iliad of Homer, Book 1, lines 191-192
- But polite and politic it is, to propitiate your hostess.1849, Herman Melville, chapter 25, in Mardi, Vol. 2
Synonyms:

appease
(transitive) To make propitious or favourable.
- But what was that compared to the pleasure of gazing on him, and listening to his words of pity or of praise! to witnessing the sparkling of his eyes when he gazed on his boy, and sought, by every possible medium, to coax him to his arms, a task not to be achieved in a moment; or in listening to...1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter L, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 19
(intransitive) To make propitiation.

Synonyms:

atone

propitiate meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

propitiate in Hindi

to propitiate: आराधना ārādhnā

propitiate in Tamil

அமைதிப்படுத்து, சாந்தமாக்கு, திருப்தி செய்

propitiate in Urdu

منانا, راضی کرنا

propitiate in Bengali

ক্রুদ্ধ ব্যক্তিকে তুষ্ট, সন্তুষ্ট করা

More languagesFewer languages

propitiate in Malayalam: തൃപ്തിപ്പെടുത്തുക, സന്തോഷിപ്പിക്കുക, പ്രസാദിപ്പിക്കുക
propitiate in Kannada: ಓಲಗಿಸು ōlagisu

Examples of propitiate in a sentence

[H]e heard . . . one of the soldiers singing as he cleaned his rifle—the men always sang over this business, as if to propitiate the gun god.1910, Henry De Vere Stacpoole, chapter 30, in The Pools of Silence:
The androgynous creative deity was best supplicated or propitiated by offerings concerned with the pleasures of the flesh.1941, George Ryley Scott, Phallic Worship: A History of Sex and Sex Rites in Relation to the Religions of All Races from Antiquity to the...

Synonyms of propitiate

Forms of propitiate

third-person singular present	propitiates
present participle	propitiating
past participle	propitiated
past	propitiated

Origin of propitiate

From Latin propitiāt-, the past participial stem of propitiāre (“make favourable”), from propitius (“favourable, gracious”).

Words formed from propitiate

Words that rhyme with propitiate

initiate

Questions about propitiate

What does propitiate mean?: Propitiate means to conciliate, appease, or make peace with someone, particularly a god or spirit.
What is propitiate in Hindi?: Propitiate in Hindi is आराधना (ārādhnā). See Propitiate meaning in Hindi.
How do you use propitiate in a sentence?: [H]e heard . . . one of the soldiers singing as he cleaned his rifle—the men always sang over this business, as if to propitiate the gun god.
What part of speech is propitiate?: Propitiate is a verb.
How do you pronounce propitiate?: Propitiate is pronounced /ˌpɹəˈpɪʃieɪt/.
What is the past tense of propitiate?: The past tense of propitiate is propitiated.

Words near propitiate in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: propitiate (page history and authors); आराधना (Hindi) (page history and authors); propitiate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); propitiate (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); propitiate (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); propitiate (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ಓಲಗಿಸು (Kannada) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-propitiate.wav.

Cite this entry: “propitiate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/propitiate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.